Smartphone Shrink: 5 Apps To Help Your Mental Health

There are hundreds of apps to track, analyze, and improve physical health, and even some tools to diagnose them. Now, researchers are exploring ways that your smartphone can improve mental health, too.

Mobilyze

Mobilyze

Northwestern University researchers recently launched Mobilyze, an app that tracks users' behavior patterns and moods to identify states that trigger depression before it happens. The app gathers data from more than 40 sensors including GPS, accelerometer, and Wi-Fi, which it uses to figure out the user's activity level and location. This data, combined with information the users supply about their mood and social context, identifies situations in which people are likely to become depressed and reminds them to take action that might prevent it, such as going outside or visiting friends. Alternatively, when users are doing well and adhering to their treatment goals, the app offers positive reinforcement in the form of text messages or email kudos.

And while it might incorrectly interpret a lazy Sunday at home as a potential bout of depression, Northwestern psychologist and Mobilyze creator David Mohr says they want this to happen. "We recognize the system will get it wrong sometimes, but we hope it does, because we're trying to treat people." Mohr says the system will constantly learn and recalibrate, so that next time it will know not to send a reminder under these circumstances.

Mind Games

Mind Games

If envisioning the audience naked doesn't help you conquer your fear of public speaking, Harvard researchers have a new trick for you. They created a training tool that uses attention bias modification (ABM)—a computer-based therapy that trains the brain to avoid negative cognitive biases, such as focusing on angry faces in a crowd.

On their smartphones, users can practice an ABM exercise in which they are shown two faces—one neutral and one hostile expression—on the top and bottom halves of the screen. The faces flash quickly, and a split-second later the neutral expression face disappears, replaced a single letter—an "E" or an "F"— that the user must punch into their phone. The letters themselves are meaningless, but having the users tap them on their phone distracts the users' attention away from the hostile expression.

"Imagine someone who's very shy or social anxious in a new setting, like at a party," says Richard McNally, a Harvard clinical psychologist and co-creator of this app. "They're already primed to focus on people that look at them with boredom or contempt. The idea is stop this automatic intentional habit by training it offline."